Biden's Policies Were The Biggest Direct Investment In State Since LBJ, But That's Not What WV Voters Wanted. Oh Well. [View all]

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In 2022, the Biden administration earmarked billions of dollars to help revitalize and strengthen former coal communities. The objective was to lay down building blocks for the region to transition from extractive industries like coal and timber to a hub for solar and other advanced energy technologies, with a view to long-term economic, climate and social resilience. But on his first day in office, Donald Trump scrapped Biden’s clean energy and environmental programs, which he lambasted as woke, anti-American liberal hoaxes.

“We knew we were living in a historic moment, not just because of the amount of funding, but because the whole region mobilized to meet the moment,” said Hannah, 33. “It was a once-in-a-generation cash injection designed to prioritize extraction-based communities as part of the energy transition, which for the first time in almost a century made Appalachia very competitive. So to have it all taken away is deeply damaging and demoralizing.”

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Rural communities in Appalachia were on the verge of breaking ground on projects when the grants were paused or terminated by the so-called “department of government efficiency”, or DOGE, led by the billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk. The wholesale cull included the $3bn Environmental and Climate Justice Program created in the IRA to tackle the climate crisis and environmental harms at a local level. A few grants have since been reinstated, but are subject to long delays – in part because so many staff at federal agencies were forced out by Doge. Many remain the subject of litigation. Every single grant Coalfield Development was helping coordinate has been impacted in some way.

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The grant was among those summarily terminated by DOGE. It remains the subject of class action litigation brought by 350 groups, tribes and local governments who claim the wholesale termination of the $3bn environmental justice and climate program is unconstitutional. In Lee county, where 85% of people voted for Trump and almost half rely on food stamps, AV had earmarked $40,000 for an asbestos survey in Pennington Gap. This was among a stack of grants secured by the community to demolish a derelict supermarket – a concrete asbestos-ridden eyesore that frequently floods and cuts off neighborhoods from the main town – to create a green space that would mitigate against future flooding.

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About 60 miles east, Dante, a sparsely populated former integrated mining community that was once the second largest in Russell county, suffers frequent power outages – including a four-day blackout during a major flood in July, and nine days after Hurricane Helene in August 2024. Dante’s share of the terminated EPA grant was tagged for a feasibility study on the old railway depot, once the hub of mining operations and the whole town. This is the first step needed to convert the depot into a resilience hub with solar panels and battery storage, a place for residents to charge their phones and keep medication refrigerated during the next blackout. The post office has been closed since July, due to flood damage. The only place still open for business in Dante is the volunteer-run mining museum.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/29/trump-coal-country